Needed: A Marian Drama which could be staged as an outdoor religious
play

First Frontier, professional theater company at the Greene County amphitheater is the producing organization of the historical outdoor
drama Blue Jacket. Their mission is to preserve and promote the history of the Ohio territory through artistic
presentation. They have produced Blue Jacket for twenty-six seasons and by recommendations from audiences have produced
non-historical companion shows based on classic novels and short stories. Shane and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
are examples. These companion shows have been very popular and well-attended.

They are exploring a new historical drama based on the history of the Shawnee Nation. Also under consideration is a religious
outdoor drama to be performed as a companion to our new production.

If anyone has written a play about the Blessed Mother [or would be interested in doing so] please contact Timothy A. Haney,
Vice-President of First Frontier, Inc., by phone at 937-372-8217 or by email at
haneyfamily@msn.com.

Francesca Franchina, MS. Ed., a long-time member of the Marianist Family, will be doing a series of Marian broadcasts through
the local stations for Radio Maria WHJM
(FM 88.7) in Anna, Ohio and WULM (AM 1600) in Springfield, Ohio. Called "Francesca and Friends: Why Mary?", the program airs every Wednesday from 11:30
AM-12:30 PM EST focusing on what is going on in the world about Mary, how to speak with others about Mary, and Mary in Scripture.

On Wednesday, July 30, 2008, Francesca Franchina talks with Father Antonio LaRocca, SMC and Father Xavier Alson, SMC, Founders
of the new Venezuelan religious order of priests and brothers (Society of Mary
Co-Redemptorix) focusing on The Blessed Mother and The New Evangelization as
shared by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI focusing on spiritual renewal
across the globe; spiritual formation involving personal and communal prayer;
and utilizing gi fts of the Holy Spirit in the parish and diocese to bring forth transformation of lives and the world.
To participate in the program call in (during the live show) with comments, experiences, questions 866-333-6279. Toll Free.

The broadcast may also be heard on-line at radiomaria.us [Click
on the BVMary photo ... Scroll down to RADIO MARIA USA (English) ... Click on
the windows icon or whichever media program you have on your PC.]. The
web site also provides access to some previous broadcasts. We'll keep you
informed about future programs. An encore of each show is broadcast Monday
night from 8:30-9:30 pm EST one week after the original.

Her series, Through the Tummy to the Heart, airs every Tuesday except the first Tuesday
from 5:00-5:45 PM on RADIO MARIA WHJM and also online. The series encores Saturdays from 3:00-3:45 pm. Tune in 88.7 FM
(WHJM) in the northern Archdiocese of Cincinnati and on line at
www.radiomaria.us
from anywhere in the world. Send email to Francesca with questions, comments,
suggestions at fran@866333mary.com.
Send email while the programs are going on if you cannot get through or if you
are listening outside of the USA. CALL IN TOLL FREE; PARTICIPATE IN THE PROGRAM (during the live show); 1-866-333-6279.

On Tuesday, July 29, 2008, Francesca Franchina continues talking about Evangelization, how to share faith in Jesus Christ,
introducing the Blessed Mother into conversations and recapping the proceedings
of the Marian Symposium held at the University of Dayton July 21-23 focusing on
Mary in The Parish. Francesca shares a pasta recipe that is delicious, easy and
quick to prepare with vegetables from your garden or farmer's market.

The Marian Library gallery will show works of Anne Simoneau from July 1 through September 5, 2008. The Marian Library will arrange the exhibit as a
series of clusters, including Mary; the brown scapular, or the brown cloth made
famous by Our Lady of Mount Carmel; the Eucharist; Jesus and the saints; and
children and families at prayer. For more information, click, into the June 26
article from
UD's Campus News Digest. Click here for
virtual exhibit.

In order to make our web site more accessible, The Mary Page may now be
reached at the following URLs: lapagedemarie.org; lapaginademaria.org; marypage.org; themarypage.org;
marypage.udayton.edu; campus.udayton.edu/mary; and themarypage.net. The original address on the University of Dayton site,
www.udayton.edu/mary, remains active as well.

Two important Catholic websites have added The Mary Page to their list of Media Partners.
CatholicWeb.com highlights
items from The Mary Page in their section on Catholic News.
Catholic.net includes a Mary
Channel on their navbar with articles from The Mary Page. Please visit these sites in
return. We expect continued collaboration with them in the future.

Radio Maria broadcasts
from Milan Italy, heard in forty-nine countries; WHJM
broadcasts out of Louisiana across USA [including FM 88.7, an affiliate station
in Anna, Ohio (north of Dayton) and AM 1600, an affiliate in Springfield, Ohio, which air regular Marian talks from UD's Marian Library every Wednesday at 11:30 am EST.]

Fifty-Thousand Walk a Week or More to Guadalupe
Shrine
Basilica Rector Urges Baptized to be Witnesses in World
Source: Zenit (Mexico City), July 23, 2008

Mexico's oldest pilgrimage--and the one that attracts the most pilgrims, with fifty-thousand participants this year--concluded Sunday at
the feet of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Reminiscent of pilgrimages of the Middle Ages, the group walked south from the state of Queretaro to Mexico City. The journey took
anywhere from seven to eighteen days to complete.

The Diocese of Queretaro sponsors the pilgrimage each year. The men's pilgrimage has a one-hundred-eighteen-year history. The women's
pilgrimage marked its fiftieth anniversary this year.

Bishop Mario de Gasperín Gasperín of Queretaro and Monsignor Diego Monroy, rector of the basilica, welcomed the pilgrims upon their
arrival.

The prelate thanked the pilgrims for their participation: "For us it is a moment of grace and blessing to hear the Word of God,
which makes us reflect on our lives."

Blessings

"The people who come want the good of Mexico, our homeland and our
Church," the bishop added. "I am very happy to head this pilgrimage; may the
Virgin, whom we always keep present, bless all the pilgrims. We will offer the
Mass for our migrant brothers, as many have pinned their hopes on this pilgrimage, entrusting themselves to God."

Hilda Garcia, vice president of the 2008 Association of Women Pilgrims to Tepeyac, explained to ZENIT that the participants sang and
were joyful throughout the pilgrimage, though they met with three consecutive days of
heavy rains. "Some of us left on July 12 and arrived in this shrine eighteen days later," she said.

Monsignor Monroy said in a press conference that "these pilgrimages
give us all feedback, benefit us by their dedication and commitment, fifty years by
women and one-hundred-eighteen years by men--a great motivation. I accompanied them on the walk
and received them here, because it is the task of the rector of this shrine."

Monsignor Monroy affirmed that "our country must continue to walk,
despite its afflictions, on the path of peace, justice, progress and truth,
because the Virgin is in the lead for Jesus Christ, for she said to us 'do whatever my Son tells you.'"

He exhorted the baptized to be the leaven, "even if we see ourselves
threatened by drug trafficking, alcoholism, injustice, corruption, famine,
poverty and misery. This is the challenge faced by pilgrims who come to preach the Kingdom of God."

On the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, we present here an
article written by Discalced Carmelite Father Kieran Kavanaugh, on the devotion of the brown Carmelite scapular.

Father Kavanaugh is the English translator of the writings of both
Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. He is a member of the Institute
of Carmelite Studies and was the vice postulator for the canonization of Saint Edith Stein.

* * *

During the Crusades in the twelfth century, a group of Westerners took up
the life of hermits by the well of Saint Elijah on Mount Carmel. They built a chapel
in honor of the Mother of Jesus, conscious that they were living in the area
made holy by Jesus and his Mother (Nazareth is less than twenty miles away).

When Saracens toppled the Latin kingdom of the Crusaders, the
hermits of Carmel had to flee the holy mountain and return to the West--to
Cypress, Sicily, France, England, Ireland and other countries. They brought with
them little more than their title of "Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel."

In Europe they were entering a hostile world cluttered with many
new religious families. The arrival of strangers from Mount Carmel was
inauspicious; they were frowned upon. Internally, they were divided as to
whether they should cling to their background as hermits or adapt to a new status of begging friars.

According to tradition, as an important fact in the midst of these
difficulties, Our Lady of Mount Carmel appeared to the prior general, Saint Simon
Stock, at Aylesford, England. According to tradition, Our Lady appeared on July 16, 1251.

The Blessed Virgin promised St. Simon Stock, oppressed with worries, that whoever would wear the Carmelite habit devoutly would receive
the gift of final perseverance. The habit was taken to mean the scapular in particular.

The scapular was a broad band of cloth over the shoulders, falling
below the knees toward the feet front and back as an apron, worn still as part
of the religious habit by a number of orders of monks and friars. As it was
gradually adapted for use by the laity, it became two small panels of brown
cloth joined by strings and worn over the shoulders as a familiar Marian sacramental.

From the sixteenth century until the Second Vatican Council the scapular
received warm welcome from the faithful and enjoyed a singular approval by the
Church magisterium. Part of the reason for this esteem was undoubtedly the
constant stream of wonderful graces, spiritual and temporal, that were poured out on individuals through its devout use.

But another reason for its popularity was its strict connection
with the last things, with the salvation of our soul, which takes priority over all our other duties here below.

Crisis

After the Council, the scapular devotion suffered the same "crisis
of rejection" that so many other practices and teachings within the Catholic Church underwent.

First, it was said that St. Simon Stock never even existed. As a
consequence, his feast day, which had been celebrated on May 16, the date of his
death, was expunged from the liturgical calendar.

Second, if he never existed, then we must do away with the feast of
Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the scapular devotion. The effort was then made by a
liturgical committee to expunge Our Lady of Mount Carmel from the liturgical
calendar, but the Latin American bishops protested so vehemently that the feast
was kept, however, on condition that nothing be mentioned about the scapular.

One of the internationally renowned Mariologists of our order,
Father Nilo Geagea from Lebanon then set about doing a very thorough research into the whole history of devotion to Mary in our order.

The result of his years of study is a huge wonderfully researched
and documented volume published by the Teresian Historical Institute in 1988; so
it is a fairly recent study. The title of the book is Maria Madre e Decoro
del Carmelo.

Through painstaking demonstration, Father Nilo shows how even the most
intransigent critic could not put into reasonable doubt the historical existence
of St. Simon Stock. Saint Simon Stock's feast day was, in fact, restored
by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments in 1979.

Is it true?

As for the historicity of St. Simon Stock's vision of Our Lady, in
which he is reported to have received the scapular promise, there are difficulties.

The earliest testimony comes at the end of the 1300s. That would
place this testimony at an historical distance of over one-hundred years. Without taking
away the validity of the testimony, the distance in time does lessen the power
of the testimony to convince from a scholarly point of view.

Practically speaking, there are two attitudes we can take:

First, from a scholar's historical point of view, we must admit
that there is a lack of documentary evidence that would demonstrate irrefutably
the truth or historicity of the apparition. At the same time, there exists no
cogent reason for denouncing the apparition as false and definitively denying its truth.

Second, on the pastoral level, one should not contradict those who
may want to continue accepting the traditional data. We should not then oppose
those who say that for centuries the Carmelite order has held that the Blessed
Virgin appeared to the prior general, St. Simon Stock, and promised eternal
salvation to him and to all those who like him wore the scapular.

Another point is that in the minds of many, devotion to the
scapular is the equivalent of devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This is
understandable, but in reality the two are distinct in theory, and ought to be
so in practice. The scapular is the means; the devotion is the end toward which the wearing of the scapular tends.

Yoke of Christ

If we look for the earliest references to the scapular, we find
them in the Carmelite constitutions of 1281 in which it was prescribed that all
Carmelite friars should wear their tunics and scapulars to bed under penalty of
a serious fault. It was also prescribed that the white mantle be made in such a way that the scapular would not be hidden.

But the reason for these prescriptions was not a Marian one. At the
time, the scapular was seen as signifying the "yoke of Christ." This yoke of
Christ in turn pointed to obedience. And that explains the strictness of the
legislation. Taking off the scapular was like taking off the yoke of Christ, or rebelling against authority.

Only gradually did the scapular take on a Marian tone and grow
until it reached such a point that it became identified with Carmelite piety
toward Our Lady. In fact the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel began to be called the scapular feast.

Devotion to Mary expressed by wearing the brown scapular seems to
be resilient and resists the attempts made in various periods of history to
diminish its value. The faithful keep coming back to it.

From the official teaching of the Church, we can gather that the
scapular of Carmel is one of the most highly recommended Marian devotions. This
is true through the centuries, and into our own times with popes Paul VI and John Paul II.

Sacramental

One of the early Carmelites in his enthusiasm went so far as to
call the scapular a "sacrament." Actually the category into which the scapular fits is that of a sacramental.

Sacramentals are sacred signs. The scapular is not a natural sign
in the sense that smoke is the sign of fire. Smoke is intrinsically connected
with fire. Where there's smoke, there's fire, the saying goes.

The scapular is what is called a conventional sign. In the case of
a conventional sign, the meaning is assigned to the object from outside. Thus a
wedding ring is a sign or pledge of mutual love and enduring fidelity between
two spouses. In this kind of sign, which is a conventional sign, there has to be
an intervention from outside that establishes the connection between the object
and what it represents. In the case of sacramentals, it is the Church that determines the connection.

Sacramentals also signify effects obtained through the intercession
of the Church, especially spiritual graces. The sacramentals--as holy pictures
or icons, statues, medals, holy water, blessed palm and the scapular--are
means that dispose one to receive the chief effect of the sacraments themselves, and this is closer union with Jesus.

St. Teresa of Avila for example speaks in her life about holy water
and the power she experienced that this sacramental has against the devil. She
mentions as well how this power comes not through the object in itself but through the prayer of the Church.

Along with the sacraments, sacramentals sanctify almost every
aspect of human life with divine grace. The passion, death, and resurrection of
Christ are the source of the power of the sacramentals as it is of the sacraments themselves.

Such everyday things as water and words, oil and anointing, cloth
and beeswax, paintings and songs are ingredients of the sacraments and
sacramentals. The Son of God became the Son of Mary. What could be more
down-to-earth, more human, indeed more unpretentious, plain, and simple?

Church position

With regard to the scapular as a conventional and sacred sign, the
Church has intervened at various times in history to clarify its meaning, defend it, and confirm the privileges.

From these Church documents there emerges with sufficient clarity the nature and meaning of the Carmelite scapular.

1. The scapular is a Marian habit or garment. It is both a sign and
pledge. A sign of belonging to Mary; a pledge of her motherly protection, not only in this life but after death.

2. As a sign, it is a conventional sign signifying three elements
strictly joined: first, belonging to a religious family particularly devoted to
Mary, especially dear to Mary, the Carmelite Order; second, consecration to
Mary, devotion to and trust in her Immaculate Heart; third an incitement to
become like Mary by imitating her virtues, above all her humility, chastity, and spirit of prayer.

This is the Church's officially established connection between the sign and that which is signified by the sign.

No mention is made of the vision of St. Simon Stock or of that of
Pope John XXII in relation to the Sabbatine privilege, which promises that one
will be released from Purgatory on the first Saturday after death.

Nonetheless, the Carmelites have also been authorized to freely
preach to the faithful that they can piously believe in the powerful
intercession, merits, and suffrages of the Blessed Virgin, that she will help
them even after their death, especially on Saturday, which is the day of the
week particularly dedicated to Mary, if they have died in the grace of God and
devoutly worn the scapular. But no mention is made of the "first" Saturday after their death.

Even the Sabbatine privilege, then, is not so unconnected with the rest of our
Catholic faith and practice. The Second Vatican Council has also insisted on
Mary's solicitude toward those who seek her protection. "From the earliest times
the Blessed Virgin is honored under the title of Mother of God, under whose
protection the faithful take refuge together in prayer in all their perils and
needs (Lumen Gentium, No. 66).

If some day a historian were to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that there are
no grounds to the Marian apparition to St. Simon Stock or the
scapular promise, the scapular devotion would still maintain its value. The
Church's esteem of it as a sacramental, her appreciation of its meaning and of
the good that has come about through its pious use on the part of the faithful is all that is needed.

Gospel message

St. John of the Cross teaches that we ought not waste a lot of time
and energy trying to discern whether or not a vision is authentic, but that we
accept and follow it only insofar as the message is in accord with the Gospels
and with what has already been revealed in Jesus Christ. Faith requires us to
live with complete trust in God and in darkness with respect to seeing God or his saints.

The scapular as a sign is rich in meaning. I think that after we
consider the official interpretations of the scapular, we can discover in it our
own personal meaning. I like to think of it as a sign of Mary's quiet presence, for the scapular is a silent devotion.

There are no prayers to be said. It reminds us of the contemplative
aspect of our Christian life. Contemplation is what our saints wrote so much
about. Contemplation is an ever-deepening silence in loving presence to God. It is in this silence that God best speaks to us.

Mary is the Church's greatest contemplative. In her silence she heard those
extraordinary words spoken to her by the Lord--"Blessed are you among women."
And so Elizabeth could add: "Blessed are you who believed."

The director and editors of The Mary Page under the auspices of the
International Marian Research Institute do not necessarily endorse or agree with
the events and ideas expressed in this feature. Our sole purpose is to report on
items about Mary gleaned from a myriad of papers representing the secular press.

The Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, USA [ESBVM-USA]
will hold an historic international, ecumenical congress in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, August 11 to 13. The Congress will be held at the Newman Library
and Oratory, 211 North Dithridge Street, and 4450 Bayard Street in Pittsburgh, PA.

This will be the first such Marian, ecumenical and international congress held in the USA. The congress will
bring together scholars from traditional Christian traditions to address the
theme: Virgin Mary as "Daughter of Zion: Mother of the New Creation." Roman
Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant scholars will consider Mary's mediation--her motherly care of the faithful which is an inspiring
spiritual source for unity among Christians today.

The scholars include representatives of Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Methodist, Lutheran, Syrian,
Byzantine Catholic, Anglican, and UCC backgrounds. The Most Rev. David A.
Zubik, Roman Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh, will serve as a patron of the
Congress and will lend an introduction to the published collection of papers that will be presented.

ESBVM-USA hopes that this congress will contribute deep appreciation of the mystery of God and the possibility of
finding union in Christ through mutual reflection on His mother. The ESBVM-USA
formed approximately twenty years ago and is patterned after the ESBVM of the United
Kingdom. Four years ago, at an ESBVM-UK international congress in Bath,
England, the idea of an international congress in the USA was born. Encouraged
by the Society in England, the American Society began planning this ambitious
event. The ESBVM expects that those who are involved in ecumenical dialogue in
other sectors will attend this inaugural Marian event. The proceedings of the
congress will be published in the future. Media coverage of this congress event
will precede the book’s publication and can inform the many interested
Christians of various traditions of the progress made in the Marian ecumenical field.

Keynote speakers:

The Very Rev. Dr. John Behr, Dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, NY, and
Dr. Mark I. Miravalle, Roman Catholic renowned International Mariologist and
professor of Theology and Mariology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Steubenville, Ohio are keynote speakers.

Roman Catholic The Rev. Dr. Nicholas Gregoris on "The Old Testament Background to John Henry Newman's Mariology: His
Explanation of Key Marian Texts, Titles and Typologies in both Anglican and Catholic Doctrine and Devotion";

Roman Catholic The Very Rev. Dr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas on "The Blessed Virgin according to the Reformers?";

Eastern Orthodox Dr. Virginia Kimball on "Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple: Daughter of Zion Dwells in Heaven's
Presence";

Anglican Catholic The Rev. Dr. Judith Marie Gentle on "'The Lord has crated a new thing on the earth: The Woman must
encompass the Man (Jer. 31:32)': The Relationship of Jesus and Mary as an Event of Redemption and Divine Revelation";

Special arrangements have been made for participants at the Holiday Inn Select Hotel at University Center, Oakland,
near the congress location. Commuters are welcome. Registration information is
available on the Society's website:
www.esbvm.org.
Anyone who is interested in welcomed. The organizers ask for prayers for the important task this congress will undertake.

You are invited to help us pray for our Prayer Corner
intentions. Please take a look! This site has been updated and enhanced
and now allows users to directly submit prayer requests or to volunteer as a prayer partner for these intentions!

The Mary Page offers a variety of resources inviting study, reflection and
meditation. We also list important Marian dates for each month of the
year. Please see Marian Commemoration Days for the month of
July.

This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute,
Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by
Kris Sommers
, was last modified
Friday, 08/22/2008 14:17:20 EDT
by
Michael P. Duricy
. Please send any comments to jroten1@udayton.edu.